Filmharmonic Getting Back on Track

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is joining forces with the Shooting Gallery, a New York-based multimedia company that will finance and produce the remaining four installments of its beleaguered Filmharmonic series. The first should surface during the second half of next season, after music director Esa-Pekka Salonen returns from sabbatical.

The project pairs A-list movie directors and composers in cinematic collaborations that the Philharmonic, providing live accompaniment, will premiere. The series has been stalled since April 1998, when “1001 Nights,” the first and only offering, was presented.

Directors Paul Verhoeven, Tim Burton and Renny Harlin, and composers Elmer Bernstein, Graeme Revell, Danny Elfman and Jerry Goldsmith have been on hold awaiting funding.

The Shooting Gallery, best known for the Oscar-nominated “Sling Blade” (1996), Nick Gomez’s “New Jersey Drive” (1998) and Hal Hartley’s “Henry Fool” (1998), has produced more than 100 films, commercials and music videos since it was created in 1991. In a deal made public last week, the company will complete two or three installments within the year, the last to go before the cameras no later than December 2001.

The Filmharmonic series was intended to build a bridge between the orchestra and the entertainment community, and to provide composers and filmmakers with the opportunity to experiment outside Hollywood’s commercial pressures.

“We’re about finding solutions--taking in art and artists who haven’t been able to find a home,” said Paul Speaker, president of Shooting Gallery Films. “We see Filmharmonic as valuable, achievable--and, hopefully, an ongoing proposition.”

Lining up backers had been an uphill climb for the Philharmonic. The concept wasn’t easy to grasp and there was little bang for the buck. The music-and-film collaborations were guaranteed just a four-day run at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Shooting Gallery CEO Larry Meistrich will broaden the approach, tapping into a variety of delivery systems to ensure a return on his investment. Each of the films is expected to cost between $1 million and $2 million apiece. Whatever revenues they generate will be split between the Shooting Gallery and the Philharmonic.

“I see these short-form movies working in theaters, video, DVD, on the Internet, even as simulcasts and educational materials,” Meistrich said. “And because we have our own postproduction facilities and infrastructure of professionals, it costs us less to turn them out.”

The deal came none too soon for music agents Lyn Benjamin and Richard Kraft, producers of the series they created with Salonen. They cast a wide net in search of a line producer and money. Last summer, a producer suggested the Shooting Gallery, whose strengths, Benjamin says, were immediately clear.

“They’re a young, artist-friendly company used to small budgets and risk-taking,” said Benjamin, who, with Kraft, will serve as executive producer of Filmharmonic. “And though they’re knowledgeable about marketing and sponsorships, they’re not just about the bottom line.”

The Shooting Gallery presented its ideas to Philharmonic staff on June 25. For those carrying the weight of an “unfulfilled promise,” suggests Emily Laskin, the orchestra’s director of development, it was a breath of fresh air.

“Everyone fell in love,” said Laskin, who, with managing director Deborah Borda, general manager Gail Samuel and Salonen, will oversee the project. “We knew we were in the hands of real filmmakers who ‘got’ what we were trying to do.”

In the next month or so, Speaker and Meistrich will meet with the four creative teams to map out specifics. They’ll evaluate budgets and, when appropriate, line up sponsors and “synergistic partnerships.”

If all goes well, the Shooting Gallery and the orchestra hope to extend the project, making Filmharmonic a Philharmonic staple. Though the first four installments involve big-name talent, a broader mix is anticipated down the road.

“The Shooting Gallery has an independent sensibility which not only opens the door to fresh faces, but encourages established names to do something different,” Salonen said. “That--as well as new media marketing--is the carrot they offer. Having a [mainstream] studio thinking as part of the equation would have been tough. Everyone agrees this is uncharted territory, but for the first time I see real light.”